Veiled Threat by Shannon Mayer Page A

flight of stairs and at the top I peered out a window. It was early in the night here, the crescent moon giving off a bare shiver of light.
    That would help cover us, as long as we kept to the shadows. The most direct route to the barricaded doorway was to cross the courtyard. Of course, I was assuming that not only could I get through the door, but it indeed led to the deep levels of the veil. And that I wouldn’t let anything nasty out when I opened the door.
    I had to trust my gut on this one; everything brought me back to this doorway.
    At the edge of the courtyard we stilled and I stared into the open space. An ocean of red caps lay between us and the other side of the courtyard.
    Literally.
    They camped, sleeping soundly, weapons within easy reach. Lazy bastards, hadn’t even bothered to set a guard. They just plunked down and went to sleep.
    “Stinky dead caps,” Alex said, his voice echoing across the open space. I clamped a hand over his muzzle, but it was too late.
    I balanced on my toes, waiting for the first rush, trying to see where we might dodge and get to the other side. Deliberately not thinking about having to retreat like a fucking coward. But they didn’t jump up to charge us, hell, they didn’t move a muscle. Not even a breath. “Wait, dead caps?”
    “Yuppy doody. Red caps are dead caps.” He waved a paw in front of his nose and then let out a big sneeze. “Damn stinky.”
    Alex trotted to the closest red cap, cocked his leg and peed on his face. “See? Dead caps.”
    “Stop that,” I snapped. Alex dropped his leg and shrunk a little.
    “Sorry.”
    They might not have been my friends, or even allies, but something destroyed them like matchsticks snapped in half for fun. My chest tightened as I walked amongst the strewn bodies.
    Limbs and heads twisted the wrong direction, weapons broken and, now that I was closer, I could see the pale moonlight gleaming off pools of blood. I bent and touched my fingers to the red cap closest to me.
    He was still warm.
    This was bad. I stood and beckoned to Alex. “We gotta move.”
    He trotted to my side, snapping his knees up high to miss touching the bodies of the red caps, like a prancing pony.
    Another time I would have laughed, or at least smiled. But not tonight. Whatever killed the red caps was close.
    “Fuck this shit.” My nerve endings jangled, dancing with the knowledge something big, bad and probably really ugly could be watching us. And if the hair on the back of my neck was any indication, I wasn’t far off the mark.
    Breaking into a jog, I wove through the bodies until we were on the far side of the courtyard. I paused at the open, dark doorway and put a hand out, stopping Alex. We couldn’t go in blind, that was just stupid.
    “What do you smell?”
    He lifted his nose, then dropped it to the ground. “Red caps. And a monster.”
    “Do you know what kind of monster?” He was usually good at identifying the things he smelled, even the ones he’d never met before.
    With a shake of his head he took another long sniff. “I sees it, but I don’t know what it is.”
    I clenched my weapons. “See it in your head?” Shit, I hoped that was what he meant.
    A quick nod and he tapped his head with the tip of one claw, and my nerves slowed a half beat. That was only a small consolation prize.
    “Is it in there?” I pointed into the dark entryway.
    Alex gave a long slow nod. “Yes.”
    Fuckity fuck fuck. This could not get any worse.
    “Traaaaaacker.”
    I spun on my heel, dropping into a crouch. A hand lifted amongst the red caps, the fingers bending to draw me close. Breathing hard, I made my way to his side and crouched near his head. He was the captain who spoke with me in the mine shaft.
    “Tracker. You are either braver than any man I know, or dumber than a troll.” His jaw was broken and words were slurred, messy and pain filled, but I understood him.
    “Combination of the two. You have to be to do my job.” I wasn’t sure